Lacoste Borie 2019

The 2019 vintage in Pauillac

Vintage benchmark: 96/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A hot end of summer after a rainy spring gave wines that hold ripeness and freshness together; the cabernets shine here.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pauillac. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

The vintage

The 2019 vintage may certainly have caused some anxiety for winemakers in early spring, but the magic of the particularly dry, sunny and hot weather which lasted all summer through to harvesttime made this vintage a great success!

It all started with a rather mild but dry winter, marked by a lack of rainfall! Bud burst was relatively early, around March 20, but this slight advance in the growing cycle quickly lost ground with April and May’s unseasonably cool temperatures and heavy rainfall. Flowering started on May 29 with the Merlots and continued until June 5. This flowering happened in two stages, spread over a week: firstly extremely favourable climatic conditions: good weather, sun, heat and a light breeze, then the weather conditions changed with the arrival of wetter, cooler weather which resulted in irregular flowering and some coulure and millerandage leading to poor fertilization of the grape flower. This month of June was marked by very large variations in both weather and temperature: the first fortnight saw very cool and rainy weather and the second was very hot with not a drop of rain! In fact, the vines hardly saw any rain from July to September! This resulted in a lack of water which had the effect of stopping the vines growing but also ensured that all the plants’ energies and focus went into the ripening of the grapes. The first ripe grapes were seen at the end of July - beginning of August (July 28 for the Merlots from the earliest maturing soils). The onset of ripening was both quick and homogeneous. This happened throughout the very hot days and cool nights. The significant temperature differential between night and day meant that the grapes ripened slowly, retaining a delicious aromatic freshness yet reaching a significant tannic richness. The end of summer transformed the winemaker into an attentive spectator calmly waiting for the right time and perfect maturity to begin the harvest. The first merlots were harvested on September 20. The harvest was very healthy, the grapes very concentrated; aromatic, with perfectly ripe tannins. The harvest continued slowly but surely and ended on 4th October with the last of the Cabernet Sauvignons showing superb maturity.

Blend of the 2019 vintage

Figures from the 2019 sheet

• 38 yrsVine age

Winemaking

Long vatting (around 3 weeks).

Ageing

In French oak barrels (45% new barrels each vintage) for between 14 to 16 months depending on the vintage.

Terroir

Grand-Puy-Lacoste enjoys an exceptional terroir. The soil is made up of gravels, that is to say alluvial stones that provide excellent drainage. The distinctive character of the Médoc soil is part of a history going back two million years, for the gravels are geological witnesses of the Quaternary era. These stones, brought down from the Pyrenees and carried by the Garonne, were deposited over time on the banks of the Gironde, its estuary. Today the layers, of varying depth, are made up of gravel mixed with sand and a little clay. This gravelly soil has the advantage of retaining heat and returning it to the vine at night, which eliminates excessive temperature swings and encourages the harmonious ripening of the bunches.